


Reevaluation

by orphan_account



Series: Enchanted Worlds [7]
Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-29 14:45:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A prequel fic, showing the early days of Fakir and Rue's sibling relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reevaluation

“So how come we’re having class outside?” Rue asked as she and Fakir followed Mr. Katz out to the gardens. They usually had their magic lessons in the classroom after lunch, but today their teacher had informed them that they would be having them outdoors. That was a first.

“Because the spell I am instructing you on today requires a special space in which to practice, Miss Rue.” Mr. Katz led them over to where a large portion of the lawn had been removed. There were two piles of wood arranged there as if for campfires, and there were buckets of water and dirt lined up nearby. Out of the corner of her eye, Rue saw Fakir pale at the sight of the prepared space and the items within. She frowned, not sure why this should make him nervous.

“What are we going to do with this?” she inquired, pointing to the wood piles. “Toast marshmallows or something?”

Mr. Katz’s mustache twitched. “If you can successfully cast the spell, perhaps,” he said dryly. “But not till much later, when I am assured of your proficiency.”

“What… what spell is that?” Fakir asked, his voice sounding strange.

His mustache twitched again. “Isn’t obvious? You are going to summon fire, and demonstrate to me that not only can you bring it forth, you can control it. After I am satisfied that you can do both, perhaps we will fetch some marshmallows from the kitchens for Miss Rue.” Rue scowled up at him.

“No.” Fakir’s voice was so low that Rue was sure she was the only one that heard him, and she turned to him with a curious look on her face. But Mr. Katz’s sharp ears had picked up the sound of the word too, and he narrowed his eyes at Fakir.

“Excuse me, Mr. Fakir?” The thought occurred to Rue that if he were really a cat, his tail would be twitching in irritation right now. She would have laughed, but with Fakir acting weird and Mr. Katz speaking to him in that soft, threatening tone, it didn’t seem like a particularly good time. “Did I hear you say what I thought you said? Please repeat it for Miss Rue and myself, and do speak up this time.”

“I said no!” Fakir’s voice shook. “I won’t cast it!”

“ _Ah_.” His mustache twitched a third time. “I see. That’s what I _thought_ you said. Would you care to explain your sudden defiance, or should I take you up to see Chrestomanci and have you tell her that you’re no longer interested in obeying your teacher?”

“No! I mean – I mean – I –” Fakir shook his head frantically, and Rue could see that he was breathing faster than normal. Some sort of panic had seized him, and that alarmed her. What could be so scary about a simple spell, especially one they could cook food on? “I just – I – please, no, I don’t want to do it. I can’t do it!”

“You seem to be confused, and frankly, so am I.” Mr. Katz leaned closer. “Which is it? You don’t want to do it, or you can’t do it? You also used the word ‘won’t’, I believe. So is it can’t, won’t, or don’t want to?”

“I – I’m not going to do it!” His voice cracked. “Just – just stop it! Leave me alone!” He ran off.

Rue stared after him as he disappeared into the flower garden. She was used to Fakir being moody and grouchy, but she had never seen him this upset. Worse, she couldn’t understand _why_ he was so upset, and even though the two of them tended to clash more often than not (while the rest of the time they attempted to stubbornly ignore each other), she couldn’t help but be worried. “Um, Mr. Katz? I’m, um, I’m going to go find him. I promise I’ll bring him right back for class, okay?” She hurried off after Fakir without waiting for an answer.

She eventually found him at the duck pond; he was sitting near the water, hugging his knees to himself and staring out at where the ducks were swimming in the water. Rue watched him for a minute, trying to think of what to say before taking a deep breath and walking over to stand next to him. “Um… Fakir?”

“Go away!” He glared up at her with eyes that looked suspiciously red. “Just leave me alone!”

“That’s a mean thing to say!” Rue planted her hands on her hips and glared back down at him. “Why are you always so rude? You’re so annoying!”

“How are you any less rude?” he demanded, his tone just a bit on the sulky side. “You came out here to laugh at me, didn’t you? That’s just as bad!”

“What? No, I didn’t!” Rue protested. “Stop jumping to conclusions, sheesh!”

“Oh, really? Then why _did_ you come out here?”

“Cause I was worried about you, dummy!” She moved to lightly swat him, but he easily caught her wrist before her hand could make contact with his head. She scowled at him. “You were acting weird so I wanted to be sure you were all right!”

“Why do you want to do that for? Why do you _care_?” Rue yanked her hand out of his grasp, and he didn’t fight her, but didn’t take his eyes off her either, lest she try to smack him again.

“Cause like it or not, you’re my big brother, and I’m your little sister, and that’s what we _do_.” Rue sat down on the grass next to him. “I know we fight a lot, and we don’t really like each other that much, but we’re family, and we have been ever since we moved in here, and… I dunno, I just think that we should maybe try to look out for each other sometimes.”

“Hmph.” Fakir shrugged and looked away.

“I’m right and you know it! Don’t you make that stupid noise at me!” Rue said huffily. “Tell me what’s wrong! Why won’t you cast that spell? What’s the big deal? Are you afraid or something?”

“If I say yes, you’ll laugh, and if I say no, you won’t believe me, so I’m not telling you anything.” Fakir glowered at her.

“That’s not true!” Rue shook her head. “I promise I’ll believe you, and I promise I won’t laugh! And if I break either promise, you can… I don’t know… have my pocket money for two weeks or something! Okay?”

Fakir thought about it for a minute. “… Fine. Three weeks if you break your promises.”

“ _Fine_.” Rue folded her arms. “So, what’s the big deal about casting that spell? _Are_ you afraid?”

“… A bit.” Fakir stared down at the ground.

“How come? You just don’t like fire or something?”

“I… well…” Fakir swallowed. “My parents died in a fire…”

“… _Oh_.” Rue looked away. She hadn’t been intending to anyway, but now she really couldn’t break her promise not to laugh. There was nothing funny about that. She’d already known that Fakir was an orphan too, but until now no one had told her exactly how his parents died. In fact, she’d assumed he’d come from an orphanage like she had, so she hadn’t bothered to ask.

“And it was my fault.” His voice trembled, and she could see the beginnings of fresh tears in his eyes. “I – I cast that spell, and… and…” He drew a shaky breath. “It was my fault.”

“Oh _no_ ,” Rue whispered, one hand coming up to cover her mouth. That was even worse – no wonder he was terrified of casting that spell, no wonder he was so moody, if this was what he was always carrying around with him. It all made sense now. “I… I’m sorry, I’m really sorry…” It was all she could think of to say.

“I don’t remember much.” Fakir plucked at the grass, not looking at Rue. “Just casting the spell, and… and I couldn’t control it, and… and then I woke up in the hospital after Chrestomanci saved me.”

“Oh, you got injured? How? Did a piece of wood fall and hit you on the head or something?” Rue peered at him, as though a bump would still be visible on his head years later. “I read a book once where that happened to this character who was trying to rescue somebody from a burning house.”

Fakir gave her a slightly disdainful look. “No. I got burned.”

“Really?” Rue was interested despite herself; though a little squeamish about some things, she couldn’t help having a bit of morbid curiosity too. “Does it still show? What’s it look like? Can I see?”

“I-idiot! I’m not going to show you!” Fakir scrambled backwards while folding his arms protectively over his chest, a panicked look on his face. “What’s _wrong_ with you?”

“I was just curious, geez. Calm down.” Rue rolled her eyes, but didn’t push the matter. He clearly wasn’t comfortable with it, so it was better off being dropped if she didn’t want to anger him. “Anyway, I understand if you don’t want to cast that spell, but I did promise Mr. Katz I’d bring you back as soon as I found you, so maybe we should go, but… well… you could try to explain to him, maybe? Cause he doesn’t seem to know. Or – or you could pretend to try casting it, and while you’re doing that, I could play a prank on him and get him so mad he’ll cancel class! What about that?”

“And then he’ll just make us try again tomorrow.” Fakir frowned. “I should probably just get it over with.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Rue shrugged. “I mean, if you don’t want me to, I won’t, but if you feel like you want to wait an extra day to be ready for it – cause he did spring it on us as a surprise and you weren’t really prepared – I can make him mad for you and get it delayed till tomorrow.”

“No, it’s okay.” Fakir shook his head. “I’d rather just get it over with and be done with it. I don’t… I don’t think I can cast it anymore anyway, so I won’t have to pretend to not do it.” He looked down at the ground for a minute, and then stood up. “Come on, let’s just go. If we take too long he’ll cancel class for that, and then I’ll have to wait another day for it.”

And that would probably make him more anxious about it, Rue realized. She could understand that: if it was her, the longer she had to wait for something like that, the more nervous she’d get, until she couldn’t stand it anymore. “Okay.”

“Th-thanks anyway, though,” Fakir said, a bit grudgingly, but she could hear real gratitude buried beneath it.

“Sure, yeah.” She gave him a little smile, and then they both got up and started walking back to the castle.

They were quiet at first, but then Fakir broke the silence as they moved through the orchard. “So, um, what kind of trick would you have done to him, anyway?”

Rue thought about it for a second; she hadn’t really had anything specific in mind when she’d made the offer. “Well… I do know this one spell that would make his mustache flap like a butterfly and make a buzzing noise…”

To her surprise, she heard Fakir laugh, and when she looked over at him, she saw that there was a little smile on his face. She couldn’t help but smile back at him, and laugh, and they began to talk about how Mr. Katz’s mustache looked like a cat’s whiskers and how catlike he could be sometimes and how funny it was.

It was nice, being able to laugh and talk comfortably with him like this. They’d probably still squabble a lot, but she felt like they could get along sometimes too, now that she understood him a bit better, and he might trust her a little more after she’d kept her promise and tried to help.

Maybe having a brother wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a request for moelskerdeg on tumblr. She wanted to see the first time these two bonded as siblings, so I wrote this story.


End file.
